Miss Ginny at ginny_mccoo writes from Montreal: The early weeks of September around the campus are brilliant. The streets are teeming with high school students who have been transformed into that wonderful thing they hope will change their lives - the first year undergraduate.

I do know what she means and I really do sympathise with her. I sat at the coffeeshop by the university gates this morning and watched lovely co-eds with their new MacBooks and class notes. Fall semesters always have that sense of expectation and exhilaration and adventure. I really do miss that, miss walking into a classroom and looking out at faces filled with a sense of newness and adventure. Undergraduate, grad school, teaching, law school, teaching again--- I miss that. I miss being part of that rush of the new.

I sympathise with Miss Ginny, too, about being able to advantage of all the adventures out there. I'd still like to go to language school in Marrakech or London (Farsi at SOAS, anyone?). I'd like to go to Berlin and study...what? German? Film? Russian? Miss Ginny writes of a younger friend: I have a 19 year old friend who plans on moving to Berlin after her undergrad and taking a few courses there. Money is of no concern. She can shrug her shoulders when I ask how expensive it is - most likely because she doesn't know how expensive it is - she doesn't really need to know as her parents will pay her tuition. I hope that doesn't sound bitter. It's not meant to. I am merely attempting to underline how sometimes the boring, the pragmatic details keep you from doing some things. I do understand that. I really envy Hannah at likeagirlshould. Upper East Side family, comparative lit at Columbia, and then just walking away from that to go study critical theory in Berlin. Like Miss Ginny, I'm not bitter. And I had my scholarships to Yale once upon a time. I just miss being able to go off and learn new things in new cities.

Miss Ginny notes that at McGill this season undergraduate girls are really into short-shorts with plaid shirts. Sometimes they wear denim short-shorts over black tights/leggings. Gladiator sandals show no sign of waning in popularity. Lots of lovely leggy co-eds at the coffeeshop this morning in denim short-shorts. I've always liked that look--- faded denim shorts cut short enough that the bottom edges of the pockets are below the legs of the shorts, tailored white shirt open halfway down, cheap thin flip-flops. No black tights/leggings under the shorts here--- it's still Louisiana in late summer, after all ---just long, slender bare legs. Three or four girls like that this morning, sitting with MacBooks and chai lattes, poring over still-fresh textbooks, smoking hipster-girl cigarettes at the outdoor tables.

I think I do miss the whole rush of being seventeen and being offered up new books, new ideas, new topics and new authors. I miss standing in the university bookstore and looking at the books assigned for all kinds of courses and just feeling overwhelmed with all the worlds in those books. I need to ask Artemis at artemislives

Miss Ginny included a link to a Globe & Mail article where columnists wrote about things they wish they'd done in their freshman year: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/in-my-first-year-of-university-i-wish-i-had/article1270256/ Some fun and poignant advice there.

Miss Ginny notes that Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere" is coming up next spring. I agree with her: it's time for a new Sofia Coppola film.

Miss Ginny is reading Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". Lacey read that back in the spring and liked it--- her first Cormac McCarthy. I passed on his "Blood Meridian" as a recommendation to both of thm. "Blood Meridian" is one of those books that just took my breath away. Very recommended. And I do want to pass on McCarthy's "Suttree" to Miss Ginny, too. A very well-crafted Southern Gothic piece. Though I hadn't read it on my own. It was Krystina at yes_please--- Swiss, studying Anglistik ---who sent me off to find it at the local library here.

Hawksley Workman is doing "Anger as Beauty" and "Tonight Romanticise the Automobile" right now on the Small Psyduck iPod. Hawksley Workman is something I need to pass on to a certain girl with green eyes--- herself a big Iron & Wine and Alexi Murdoch fan. Hawksley Workman was a recommendation from Miss Lissy long ago, back when she was still at _iwenthome. I'm still looking for an mp3 of his "Your Naked Body On The Beach".

I'll watch "Mad Men" again tonight--- a new Sunday night habit. Miss Ginny tells me she's working her way through the seasons of "The L Word". I was always rather a fan of "L Word", if only because I so desperately wanted Shane and Jenny. And I liked the soundtrack, too. (Note: get "Dexter" soundtrack) I do want to ask Miss Ginny about her take on "L Word"...and about which of the girls she has crushes on.

Dark and raining outside my office windows. I came up here this afternoon just to get out of my flat and, well, yes, abuse the printers at the office. I'll go home in a bit and have a couple of chilled, tart gin-and-tonics. Tomrrow...I may come back up here for a bit. Or I may just sleep away the holiday.